First, I thank the Minister for the fact that the building of the extension for Richill National School, Lisnagry, County Limerick, is commencing. It is a happy ending to a long saga that started some years back when two schools in the parish of Castleconnell were in a deplorable state and the first school in Castleconnell got its extension and Richill National School extension, I suppose for lack of finance etc. did not go ahead at that particular time.
This is in the environs of Limerick city. The urgency with which the parents, teachers and pupils pushed for this extension to be built relates to the fact that what one would call commuter people and locals, folk indigenous to the area, are under intense competition from city schools nearby and likewise neighbouring schools. It is a credit to the excellent teachers who are in the school and the parents that they actually tolerated the conditions of that school over a long period. They understand the importance of school to the life of a rural area. It is quite rural though it is within the city environs. The fact that the extension is going ahead now will mean that those parents and other parents in the area will choose that school for their students. This raises the point of the loss of a teacher over the last year because of falling numbers, not because of the lack of interest in the school but because the conditions were so deplorable that parents could not subject their children to this. As a teacher I am aware of the difficulties in relation to prefabs and so on, but that school was just unbelievably dilapidated, rat infested, no toilet facilities, with prefabs that really had seen a better time.
There are 250 children attending the school with eight teachers. At present they have just four classrooms. I want to refer briefly to the motion for the Adjournment of the Seanad, which I raised regarding the night of the big storm under Standing Order 29 some weeks ago, on that night, when fortuitously, as I said, the students were on a mid-term break, one pre-fab was actually blown down. The destruction to furniture etc. was so serious that if students had been in that classroom on that day I shudder to think what would have happened. It was an act of God but that focused the mind of both the media in the mid-west and the Minister on the situation. It was unfortunate in one way that it had to reach the stage where a serious accident could have happened. I am sure the Minister can understand the concern of parents.
That pre-fab was part and parcel of the pre-fabs in existence, so for the last number of weeks the children are sharing days. One half of the class comes in at 9 o'clock until 12 o'clock and the other half from 12 o'clock until 3 o'clock, so really the children are only getting a half day's education. The Minister smiles. It might be all right for one week to get the odd half day off. This has happened since that particular storm night in February and will continue until the pre-fabs are erected on the site.
The Minister has sanctioned the extension. I have some questions for her. First, has the contract been signed once and for all with the builder who actually appeared on the site today? It is very important that we have that clarified. Secondly, the completion of this building is very urgent because the situation with those students is still the same as it has been for the last few years. In fact, some students attending that school have never sat in a decent classroom for the whole of their primary school life. It is a credit to them and their parents that they feel so strongly about keeping their students at school that they have put up with this over such a long period.
The level of teaching is extraordinarily good in this school. The results are likewise. It is one school — I know this is something the Minister is very very keen on — where there is tremendous empathy between the parents, the staff and, of course, the students. All concerned are very anxious that the children are not left in the present circumstances for much longer..
I know that porto-cabins which have been sanctioned by the Office of Public Works. The Department pay nine-tenths of the overall price, of these which is quite sizeable but they will not arrive on site for six to eight weeks so we will have another two months at least of the half day student situation going on. That is something I, as a teacher, feel very strongly about. This whole school year, from September on — by March two-thirds of the school year has elapsed — has been completely disrupted for the students.
In regard to the pre-fabs is it within the power of the Minister's Department to see that they are placed quicker than within eight weeks so as to avoid any further disruption to the 250 students who are still attending school in these deplorable conditions where the pre-fabs they had have been blown away and they are left with four rooms.
I trust the Minister will treat this as an urgent case and that there will be monitoring of the pupil-teacher ratio at this school. The Minister's commitment to the replacement of a teacher when the numbers increase would give the school the support it needs at the moment when there is such commitment on behalf of the parents and teachers. They are very pleased that the extention is going ahead but it was as a result of intense lobbying and intense pressure continuously by the parents and teachers. I have visited that school on several occasions at different times and I found the conditions deplorable.
Would it be possible to have the school completed as a matter of urgency? The builder has to go through the various motions but I hope money will be forthcoming and that the whole operation will be speeded up. Secondly, when numbers increase — they decreased because parents took their children out and sent them elsewhere because some of them were not able to put up with the conditions — I trust that the teacher replacement will be forthcoming. Could something be done about the temporary solution of the porto-cabins to ensure that they are installed within a shorter period than eight weeks?
